Evernote and "The Wall Street Journal"

Posted by Ken
Dec 3, 2014 at 04:59 AM

Dr Andus wrote:

>I’m wondering if I’m just in a totally wrong demographic or profession,
>but I don’t get this overwhelming focus on constant sharing and
>collaboration. It’s nice to be able to do it when you need it, but does
>that mean that every single app needs live collaboration and sharing? Is
>everybody out there really constantly chatting and sharing while
>working?
> >Anyway, it just feels like a lot of development time and energy is going
>into these collaborative and sharing features, when that sort of thing
>could be achieved at the OS level or by some specialist (screen-sharing,
>teleconferencing) tool, rather than having to build that into every
>single app…
> >Unless it’s just a ploy to use the power of social networking (i.e. peer
>pressure) to force the product on one’s colleagues… OK, rant over…

While I share your frustration, and am no fan of social media, I can understand the appeal of a robust program that allows collaboration and document sharing. Email is one of my primary tools at work, but sometimes when multiple parties are involved in a negotiation or discussion of multiple documents, email tends to fall apart for tracking discussion and document comments or suggestions.

Many of these programs, like Trello, Asana, etc. are great tools for their specific purpose, but it would be best if one or two comprehensive and robust programs could carry the load and become industry standards like MS Office (love it or hate it). I work with many parties outside of my office, and even Word is not necessarily a standard, as documents are often shipped as PDF files, or worse scans. I had hopes that Google Wave would mature, but it seemed more like a technology showcase than a product. Quip, which MadaboutDana (Bill?) mentioned in an earlier post, seems like they understand the concept, but it still seems a bit immature. I hate to say it, but I wish Microsoft could invent such a product that incorporated Word, Excel and possibly One Note documents in some collaborative environment so everybody involved in a project or discrete activity could all work off the “same page” in one threaded discussion. I am getting tired to piecing together email messages from multiple parties.

I know this software does not appeal to everybody, but collaboration and threaded discussions do have their place beyond forums and social media.

—Ken